How much education must primary-school teachers complete?

This map tells us the minimum level of education teachers are required to complete to teach at the primary education level.

Map reflects policies in place as of June 2014.

The minimum level of education is that which national policy requires teachers to have completed in order to instruct students at a given educational level.

Lower secondary usually ends after 9 years of schooling following the beginning of primary education.

Secondary education usually ends after 12 years of schooling following the beginning of primary education.

When a country requires three years of post-secondary education, we consider this to be equivalent to a bachelor’s degree for the purpose of comparability across countries.

Bachelor’s with training includes a bachelor of education or a general bachelor’s degree with additional teacher training.

Lower secondary, secondary education, and master’s degree include countries that require a teacher to have completed no more than that level of education, whether or not they require specialized teacher training.

Master’s degree consists of a program of study that normally occurs after the successful completion of a bachelor’s degree.

If no information was available on whether specialized teacher training is required, the country was coded according to the level of education required; e.g. secondary education, bachelor’s degree, or Master’s degree.